Deck new Orioles Bullpen Catcher, plus Big Moves in Washington & Chillicothe

The Windy City Thunderbolts had one of the greatest seasons in independent baseball history in 2007, and their squad is getting raided from top to bottom because of it.  The Thunderbolt's hitting coach, Ronnie Deck, is the latest to get scooped up.  He has signed on as the bullpen catcher for the Baltimore Orioles.  Deck joins two other former Frontier Leaguers to move on as bullpen catchers in the big leagues - Scott Pickens (Chillicothe & Florence) is the bullpen catcher for the Tigers and Ben Risinger (Springfield Capitals) is the bullpen catcher for the Padres.

Ronnie Deck and I go back to 2004 where we met at International Performance Baseball's World Free Agent Spring Training (recent Beach Bums' acquisition Jake Whitesides was also in attendance at this tryout).  He is a quality person and I'm sure the Orioles will be very happy with the job he does.

This off-season the Thunderbolts have lost manager Andy Haines (Florida Marlins), pitching coach Brenden Sagara (Evansville Otters), hitting coach Ronnie Deck (Baltimore Orioles), pitcher Shawn Phillips (Florida Marlins), pitcher Billy Phillips (Gary Railcats), outfielder Rob Marconi (Gary Railcats), and outfielder John McCarthy (Gary Railcats).

In other news, there has been a big shake up in the roster of the Washington Wild Things, as anticipated.  With an overflow of older ballplayers, Washington traded away pitchers Tom Cochran and Justin Mattison with outfielder Jarod Rine to Worchester of the CanAm League in exchange for pitcher Ryan Mitchell.  Cochran and Rine were both going to be Veterans in 2008, and Mattison would have been an L2.  Another Washington Veteran, catcher Mario Garza, retired along with utility infielder Kyle Padgett.

The Chillicothe Paints' correspondent on the Frontier League's fan blog "From the Bleachers" is reporting that pitchers Perry Cunningham, Eric Teall, and Brian Marshall have retired along with infielder Evan Sobel.  To replace Sobel at 2nd base, the Paints signed Drew Saylor, who was an All-American at Kent State University and bounced around in two seasons in the minors.  Saylor will be a good pickup for the Paints.

Chillicothe also signed Brandon Murphy out of Marshall and Tommy Vrzal out of NCAA DII St. Mary's in Texas.